Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
ONE
Materials & Techniques
One of the benefits of drawing is that you can create a lovely piece of art
with minimal expense. However, you should still buy the best quality materi-
als you can, as it is frustrating to battle with inferior supplies as well as your
inexperience if you are a beginner. As you work your way through this topic,
I hope you will soon see an increase in both your skill and your confidence.
There's no substitute for practice.
For the drawing at left, I began with various green and blue pastel pencils
for the first layers of color in the background sky and grass. For large areas
like this, try applying the colors with sponge makeup applicators, as they
have a large blending surface. There is no extra pastel dust to smudge be-
cause it all gets worked into the surface of the paper, but it is still a good
idea to keep a piece of tracing paper under your hand to avoid smears. Craft
shops also sell sponge chalk applicators which are often used by card
makers and other hobbyists.
I used a raw sienna pastel pencil for the first layers of color on the puppy,
dark brown for the kitten, and patches of dark brown for the bunny. The
clouds were lifted out of the blue sky with an eraser. For details such as the
trees, shrubs, fence and grass blades, I used various dark and light green
and brown colored pencils. Various browns were used for the details on the
animals. (Techniques for drawing fur are shown step-by-step in each
chapter in this topic.) The eye highlights and kitten whiskers were scratched
out with a craft knife.
Try reproducing this drawing with your own favorite pets. Photocopy a
photograph of each animal, cut it out, and move the images around until you
are satisfied with their placement. Then tape the cut photocopies together
and photocopy them again. Now you have a composite reference photo to
use for your drawing.
basic supplies
